Insurance Policies and Annuities

[David Carlson]

The thread about the Canada Pension Plan reminded me that I have a
similar question about whole life insurance policies and annuities, both
of which often have large present values and may have loan value or
scheduled payouts similar to pensions, but with a real current value,
future value, etc. 

I currently track the cash value of my insurance policies as assets with
periodic adjustments to income called increase in insurance value, to an
expense called cost of insurance and to another expense called
administrative expense.  My insurance companies actually give me this
information either yearly or monthly in one case. 

I am now trying to track an annuity which will become one part of my
retirement portfolio, and like a pension it will sometime in the future
be a decreasing asset and an income source for me, but right now it has
a significant (and hopefully increasing) present value, which I think I
should call an asset in my net worth report.

My question is how do others track these items in GnuCash?

David C